A minimally invasive surgical procedure is a surgical procedure that is less invasive than open surgery used for the same type of procedure. Minimally invasive surgery is typically performed through several small incisions (e.g., slits, punctures or the like) as opposed to one or more large incisions as is used in open surgery. In a typical minimally invasive spinal surgery, an endoscope and/or surgical instruments are passed through these incisions. The endoscope, which includes a thin, lighted tube with an attached camera, enables a surgeon to view an area being operated on using a monitor. Alternatively to using an endoscope or in conjunction with use of an endoscope, an operating microscope can be used. By performing the surgical procedure through small incisions, the surgeon can safely work on the site being operated on while disturbing only a minimal portion of surrounding tissue, organs, etc. As a result, patients are less likely to develop complications, they are more likely to recover more quickly, and can typically return to normal activities sooner in comparison to open surgery.
In performing minimally invasive surgical procedures of the spine (i.e., minimally invasive spine surgery), use of a retractor is often desirable or necessary. One current approach for minimally invasive spine surgery is to first install a retractor and then, through use of sequentially dilating tubes or other means, installing pedicle screws, fixation rods and/or the like through a passage defined by tissue retracted by the retractor. This approach has the drawback of less than accurate placement of the pedicle screw due to the distal end of the tubes not being precisely placeable and/or the retractor causing inadequate visualization of the pedicle screws when using fluoroscopy.
Therefore, an approach configured for first percutaneously placing the pedicle screws and then building a retractor off of the pedicle screws would overcome drawbacks associated with prior art approaches for placing pedicle screws in minimally invasive spine surgery, thus making such approach advantageous, desirable and useful.